Yesterday, I was at the bookstore and I was skimming through a book about planted aquariums(I do not rememebr the author nor title). There were a few pages on lighting & photosynthesis and it mentioned that plants that turn reddish in color in higher lighting use a less efficient way of photosynthesis. The inefficiency is shown as the plants reflect more red.

Now with that said, would that put any more value on the blue spectrum? If this were so, this would definitely make me think twice of buying those grow lights. Especially since more than half my plants are red in color and like high levels of lighting.

This also makes me think that maybe these plants would take more of the green spectrum- though maybe still not a lot.

Hehe, thanks, Kyle. Yes, overall lighting intensity is much more important, though a bulb with strong emissions in the red spectrum will, of course, help highlight the red of the plants. To get the reds in the first place, emphasize lighting (and the necessary corollary, CO2 injection), high iron, and low nitrates (&lt;5 ppm). I'm also experimenting with higher levels of phosphates (up to 2 ppm); I will let you know of the results if and when I get them.

I haven't seen red out of my Sunset Hygro and Rotala Indica in forever. I thought it was due to high NO3, but restricting it to &lt;5ppm hasn't brought on any color. I've dosed iron via Seachem Flourish and Plantex CSM and still didn't see color. I went with Seachem Flourish Iron and some red improved, but phosphate levels dropped quickly. I raised PO4 to around 1.0 and I'm finally seeing some red!
I think my bulbs are getting old, though. I can't wait to get these 9325K bulbs in and see how they affect color. (This might also support the argument for long wavelength spectral output)

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the The Planted Tank Forum forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Location

Your Location. As precise as you feel comfortable with.

Security Question

While balancing on a piece of wood, two inches by four inches known as a 2x4, John and his friend Sally both spotted a dalmatian inside of a truck with sirens. The animal with John and Sally is a _ _ _?

Insurance

Please select your insurance company (Optional)

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.